


Solstice

by NiteWrighter



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Baihu Genji Shimada, F/M, Oral Sex, Sex, So vanilla you could find it in the ice cream section, Valkyrie Angela "Mercy" Ziegler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 15:18:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17103041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiteWrighter/pseuds/NiteWrighter
Summary: An intrepid valkyrie meets a cursed prince. Can she stop the eternal winter that plagues his land?Written for the "Warmth" and Magical" prompts of Gency Week.





	Solstice

The Valkyrie flew headlong into the wind, the roar of it drowning out all of her thoughts. Sometimes all the thrust her wings could give her only managed to keep her flapping in place in the face of it. Three times the wind sent her tumbling and spinning out of control in the maelstrom. There were some dizzying seconds where she wasn’t sure if she had been turned around completely by snow-blindness, but still she kept flying forward, undeterred by the blizzard. She was Mercy the Valkyrie, after all. She was an adventurer, a rescuer of heroes, and an accomplished healer and warrior herself. Thus far, she and whatever allies she had found herself with were able to handle any foe, so she figured she could handle a bit of bad weather. This, however, this was bad enough to make her consider the idea that she had bitten off more than she could chew. You couldn’t fight a snowstorm, you couldn’t really _defeat_ it. The sensible thing to do was to wait it out, but she couldn't do that. She had made a promise to the people of this land, trapped in a seemingly endless winter. She had promised to end it.

Furiously, Mercy beat her wings against the wind, her face covered from the blasts of diamond dust by a cloth scarf that had been, for several hours now, frozen and soggy from her own exhalations.A great gale sent her hurtling backwards once again, and in the midst of her tumultuous spin, she considered trying to find the earth again, taking her chances trudging through the snow, but then she saw it. A great looming shape dotted with lights. Willing the last bits of strength to her wings, she flew forward, then the wind shifted, and she found herself flying forward much faster than she knew was safe. The great looming shape suddenly grew even larger, and she could make out the details of it now—-It was a castle of glittering black stone, with blue-lit windows like cold stars. And it was coming up much faster than she would like.

_Stop,_ she thought, trying to regain control of her position in the air, only managing to slow herself slightly, _Stop, stop STOP—-_

_WHAM._

Mercy was able to pivot to her side just in time and curl her wing against herself so that it took the brunt of the impact as she slammed hard against the great oaken doors of the castle. She heard the crack of her wing’s radius, but the sensation itself was muted by cold. Still, the force of the impact was enough to make her see stars. She fell from the door into a pile of powdery snow at the castle’s entryway and unconsciousness overtook her, snow piling up on top of her.

——

She woke with a short gasp and her breath fogged in front of her. The wind was no longer howling around her but instead it was still.

Still, and very, very cold.

She looked around and found she was in a rather large bedroom with a fire crackling in it, though even with the fire she could still see her breath. From a high window in the room, there was a gray morning light and snowflakes were still swirling outside, though not with nearly the ferocity of the night previous. Her wing ached and she felt a weight on top of her, then found she was covered in heavy quilts and furs on a low, but large bed. Her winged circlet and breastplate rested on a bedside table, and her boots were next to the bed as well. She lifted up the quilts and furs on top of her and looked down at herself with some alarm, but was relieved to find she was still dressed in her tunic and trousers. She moved to sit up more in the bed and an ache shot through her wing. Grunting, she brought herself to a seated-up position and lifted up the wing as well. Pain shot through it, but she saw that the bones of her wing had been set and the wing itself was bandaged. She blinked with some surprise, looked around the room, then pushed the blankets off of herself and immediately shivered in the cold air of the room. She pulled on her boots and pulled one fur blanket around her shoulders as she rose to her feet and walked over to the fireplace. She warmed her hands for a few brief moments before pulling the fur blanket tight around herself and exiting the room. 

It was even colder outside the room, yet she saw no open windows, no snowflakes drafting in. She walked down a high-ceilinged corridor to a great entry hall, lit up in a cool gray light with massive windows. On the stairs heading down into the great hall, she paused in front of a portrait in the hall of a handsome young lord with jet black hair, a sharp jawline, a cocksure grin, and ridiculous-yet-endearing eyebrows. He was clad in scaled armor, lined with luxurious white fur, and under his arm there was a helmet with a grand furry plume and and a face-guard made out in the likeness of a tiger’s face. Her eyes flicked from the armor of the man in the portrait to his face again. The wind blew hard against the glass of the windows and they rattled and she pulled the fur blanket around herself tighter at the very thought of going out there again. Ice crystals shedding from the ceiling hung in the air like sparkling dust motes. She scanned around the room, Someone had pulled her in from the cold, someone had removed her breastplate and bandaged her wing. she knew she wasn’t alone here. “Hello?” she called. 

With a room as cavernous as this, she would have expected her voice to echo, but the cold seemed to mute it.

“Hello?” she called again, louder this time. There was the rumble and one of the massive doors at the end of the great hall opened and a blue and silver-clad figure hurried out and slid to a stop on the icy floor. 

He looked like the man in the portrait.

Or his ghost, at least.

He was dressed in a fine gray fur-lined tunic of deep cerulean. His face was more scarred than the man in the portrait but still handsome. Now though, his skin was far whiter, and had an unnatural pale bluish glow to it, like snow in moonlight. His hair was silvery white as well and somewhere between licks of flames and spiky hoarfrost in texture. His eyes were that same unnatural ice blue, like frozen stars, unsettling, but beautiful. And his eyebrows, gods, his _eyebrows—_

“You’re alive,” his awe-filled voice seemed to carry in the air better than hers, snapped her out of her examination. He caught himself and then said, “I—I mean you’re awake.” 

“Are you the lord of this castle?” said Mercy, looking around as she walked across the stone floor to him. 

He bowed, “I am. I bid you welcome, my lady. If there is any way I can be of any service to you, I would be happy to oblige.”

“I should like to thank your footman for bringing me in,” said Mercy.

“Ah that was… me…” said the lord of the castle.

“I see. Well… thank you. Then I should like to thank your physician for bandaging my wing.”

“That… was also me.”

“Really?” Mercy was impressed.

“I’ve patched up plenty of birds’ wings for falconry, yours was just… bigger.”

“Ah…” Mercy folded and unfolded her wing, “Well… I suppose I should thank your maid for making my room up and keeping that fire lit.”

“I will be sure to do that.”

A pause passed between them.

“You made the bed and kept the fire lit, didn’t you?” said Mercy.

“I’m… a bit understaffed at the moment,” the lord of the castle admitted, “I heard a thud at my door and…and you were there so I…” he trailed off.

Another pause passed and Mercy pursed her lips.

“Mercy,” Mercy extended her hand.

“Genji,” he bowed and kissed her hand in a smooth and swift motion, an instinctive motion on his end that sent a jolt of cold coursing up her arm from his lips. Her shoulders bunched up from the rush of cold and he immediately noted the twitch of her fingers.

“Ah—My apologies,” he let go of her hand and rocked back on his heels slightly rolling his fingers before straightening his shoulders, “So just to be clear your wing is—“

“Feeling as good as it could be, given the circumstances,” said Mercy with a smile.

The wind rattled the windows once again and he looked at the shaking glass with some distress. “What were you _doing_ out there?” he said, looking out at the storm.

“I heard stories of a land trapped in unending winter,” said Mercy, looking around, “I figured the best place to find out its source was the heart of the storm.”

“Such a trip would be deadly for most humans,” said Genji.

Mercy motioned at her wings.

“Which… you are not,” he murmured.

“You seemed to roll with the fact that a woman had an 8 foot wingspan pretty well,” said Mercy.

“I feel I’ve lost all point of reference on strangeness myself,” said Genji, looking at his own hand a bit wistfully before catching himself and looking back at her, “You’re a valkyrie, aren’t you? You’re a long way from home.”

“I go where I’m needed,” said Mercy, smiling as she looked out the window, “And what is needed here is an end to this storm.”

“Ah, you must be here to slay me then,” he said.

Mercy tightened the furs around herself, “Excuse me!?”

“Just to be clear, I don’t know if killing me is actually going to _stop_ the curse, so if it keeps going after you’ve done your duty I’m deeply sorryfor —”

“I—Why would kill you—Curse—What—? Is this storm your doing?” said Mercy.

“It’s not my _doing_ , its my _curse,_ ” said Genji, Mercy glanced down to see frost feathering out from beneath his feet, and suddenly her breath went more visible as he went on, “I don’t want this happening to my land any more than you or any of my people. I’ve even tried heading north to try and get the storm away from them but I get so turned around out in that blizzard I’m just as trapped as—” he was cut off by the sound of a kettle whistling from down the hall, “Oh—your tea.”

“Tea?” said Mercy.

“You like tea?” said Genji.

At this point the room was so cold that the prospect of a hot drink was more than welcome though Genji’s mention of her slaying him was concerning—he had patched up her wing after all, she couldn’t very well repay that by killing him and she certainly didn’t want to. Mercy nodded and they walked down a hall to the castle kitchens, which, were marginally warmer than the rest of the castle by virtue of closer quarters and the cookfires. Ever the gracious host, Genji poured out tea for them both.

“It began a few years ago—It really wasn’t this bad, at first,” he said, handing a teacup over to her. Mercy found that Genji touching the cup of just-boiling tea only for a few seconds had already rendered it at the threshold where one had to chug their tea before it slipped into the ‘less hot than ideal’ and ‘lukewarm’ temperatures. 

“Who cursed you?” said Mercy, sipping her tea.

“Mountain spirit,” Genji leaned against the kitchen table, looking into his own teacup, “When I was young and thirsty for glory, I slew a troll… turned out to be her son, and she was not happy about that. Her son gave me these scars,” he gestured at his face, “But she gave me this curse. Something about ‘You will know grief and pain and loneliness as it devours you from the inside out and blights your lands white as bone’—and so on.”

“That’s terrible,” said Mercy. She paused, “What do you mean it wasn’t this bad at first?”

“Well… for the first few years it was only harsher winters. Nothing we couldn’t handle, then… my father passed away, and my brother had to travel with our armies to protect our borders, leaving me here to be steward of the castle. The winters started getting longer, and longer and then one year… there was still snow, even in the warmest months. I knew it was my curse then. My betrothed didn’t believe it—they couldn’t stand the cold and thought I was going mad so they left. And then—” he snapped his fingers, “This,” he gestured at the windowpane of the kitchen where snowflakes were gently falling.

“This—“ he said again, gesturing at the window. He was fully expecting the window pane to rattle for dramatic effect, but now he became acutely aware that this was the quietest the wind had been in a long time.

“It doesn’t look so bad now,” said Mercy, tilting her head.

“It’s… not usually like this,” said Genji, “Admittedly some days it’s worse than others. I mean I was able to keep it abated back in the earlier days but—“

“Abated?” Mercy perked up, “How?”

Genji made eye contact with her and something flashed in those cold star eyes of his. He moved to sip his tea, found it was frozen solid, then dumped a solid icy dome of tea onto his saucer, “I—Well—that’s… I don’t know if it kept the curse at bay for _sure,_ correlation and causation and—”

“Genji, you have to tell me _how,_ ” Mercy said, standing up and leaning closer to him.

Her sudden closeness to him made him flinch back from her slightly. “I—it’s not important—”

“Not imp—Genji, your lands are in eternal winter! Nothing could be more important! Your people’s crops are dying! Trade routes are getting shut down! I made a promise to some villagers that I would find a way to help them! I gave my word! If there’s something you could do—something _I_ can do—something _we_ can do _together_ —”

“I got myself off.”

“…I’m sorry, what?”

Genji ran a hand through his hoarfrost-white hair and then pressed his hands together in front of himself and inhaled, “I got myself off,” he said plainly. The room cooled to the point where Mercy’s breath was fogging in front of her again and she pulled the fur blanket tighter around herself.

“I—okay,” Mercy pressed her fingertips to her forehead, “That is—-You know, if you’re lonely, you don’t have to—”

Genji scoffed and the temperature in the room dropped by several more degrees. The icy miniature dome of frozen tea sitting on Genji’s saucer went from pale brownish to grayish white as frost feathered over it. “You don’t belie—well of course—I mean I don’t believe it either, it’s only happened a few times and it’s had diminishing returns and I’ve felt like a complete idiot when—” he caught himself and Mercy’s eyes flicked to the frost patterns slowing their spread across the windowpane, “Just… forget I said anything. You came here to slay me to stop the curse, didn’t you? Just… get it over with.”

“I came here to stop the curse,” said Mercy, “I didn’t know if there was going to be slaying involved. And you said yourself you don’t know if killing you will stop the curse.”

Genji’s lips thinned and he looked off in silence. Mercy leaned against the kitchen table next to him.

“…so the curse got worse after your betrothed left,” she said, “Did you and them ever…”

“Well yes, a few times,” Genji said with a shrug, “Our… our relationship wasn’t what you would call passionate—mostly political, but we respected each other, we had a rapport… at least until the curse started getting worse.”

“That’s still never easy,” said Mercy with a shrug, “Did your staff quit or—“

“I ordered them to leave,” said Genji, “It was getting harder and harder to get from the castle to the village by the day—I made them go before they were trapped here.”

“What about you?” said Mercy, “I doubt any supplies could get to your castle—”

“Look at me,” he said, gesturing to his face, “Do you think I look like this naturally? The curse has been changing me for months now. I.. I don’t actually remember the last time I got hungry.”

“Do you still…” Mercy trailed off.

“Do I still…?” Genji narrowed his unsettlingly glowing eyes at her.

“Do you still yearn?” said Mercy.

“ _‘Yearn?”_ ” Genji repeated.

“Look, if getting off helped keep the curse in check, why not just… make a decree so someone could…?” she trailed off again.

Genji maintained eye contact with her for a few seconds. “Oh—Oh a decree,” he said pushing off the table and pacing about the kitchen floor, “Yes, of course, why didn’t I think of that earlier? I can see the decree now: ‘Suck the prince’s cock and keep icy death from swallowing the land’ yes, that would definitely work and not sound like a horrific abuse of power at all.” 

“Then be _subtle_ about it! I don’t know how your royal courts work!” said Mercy, huffing and folding her arms, “With your looks it’s not like you wouldn’t have every able-bodied citizen lining up to fuck the cold away with you, anyway.”

“I—thank you?” Genji’s brow crinkled and a blush spread across his cheeks and nose bridge, but it was glacial blue rather than rosy pink.

“I just think you’re being a lot more stubborn and proud about this than anyone can afford,” Mercy added offhandedly.

“Stubborn and—!?” Genji bristled and the room dropped even lower in temperature. Mercy felt the cold as an ache now, numbing her feet even in their boots, “I’m sorry,” Genji said, those star-like eyes flaring, “But you crash into my door in the small hours of the morning nearly killing yourself, then have the gall to waltz in here and tell me how to handle the curse that I have been dealing with for several years now—“

“Which you _aren’t_ dealing with otherwise I wouldn’t _be_ here right—nngh!!” snapped Mercy, her wings instinctively flared out in fury but the combination of the pain in the broken one straining against the weight of the fur blanket made her flinch hard, “Ah—Damn…”

“Is it your wing?” Genji said in alarm, “Let me see.”

Mercy shrugged the blanket off slightly, unfolding her wings. Genji gently took the injured wing by the tip and examined the bandaged section. He pressed a hand to the bandages slightly and Mercy winced but then immediately eased up as the coldness of his hands numbed the pain of the break.

“Good, it’s still set,” Genji said, mostly to himself. Mindlessly he trailed his knuckles down the vane of one of her feathers next to the bandages. “This is my fault… I am sorry you got dragged into this mess,” he said quietly.

“I plunged headlong into this mess, thank you very much,” said Mercy, smiling.

“Your wing—” he started.

“Has had worse breaks. As far as adventures go in general this could be a lot worse. I assumed I would have to fight an ice giant or something like that. Sucking you off seems a lot more pleasant.”

His hands flinched back from her wing. “I’m sorry?!”

“Well I mean you said yourself, ‘Suck the Prince’s Cock, keep back icy death’ and so on—”

The glacial blue blush had returned with a vengeance on Genji’s face. “I also said there were diminishing returns and—-and look I don’t—-you don’t have to—-”

Mercy leaned against the table and folded her arms, “Well I’m only saying because if you’re stuck in this castle with that storm out there same as me, I mean, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t try it—” she caught herself, “I mean I don’t mean to pressure you into anything—If you’re not interested—”

“No—I mean, yes I’m actually very interested but—” Genji pressed his fingertips to his temples, “You are _painfully_ attractive and gods know how long its been since I've been stuck all alone hereso it’s very difficult telling you this, but I just don’t want this to end up with both of us embarrassed and disappointed—”

Mercy snickered. “I know, it’s been a while. It’s been a while for me too, so—”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying just—” Genji grabbed one of her hands and put it to his face. Mercy flinched at the cold that coursed through her hand and up her arm.

“That,” said Genji, “It’s that cold. All over.”

“All over?” said Mercy.

“All over,” said Genji, “This curse has made… everything… much more difficult.”

Mercy’s lips thinned thoughtfully for a few seconds before she said, “Very well then.”

“Are you s—”

“I’m a valkyrie. We have to have a lot of cold tolerance given how high we fly,” said Mercy, “I can manage it. Besides,” she pushed off the kitchen table slightly and, still keeping the fur blanket hooked in her knuckles, draped her arms around his shoulders, “I like a challenge.”

“I’m a challenge?” Genji smiled a little as she pressed herself against him. One arm trailed around her waist while one hand stayed at her ribcage. The cold of his touch sank in slow and deep through the leather of her tunic. 

“You’re worse than the blizzard,” Mercy said with a grin before bringing her mouth to his. There was a half beat where the motion stunned him, like it had been so long he had to consciously remember how to stick his tongue in her mouth. She wove her fingers into his hair. Just as flinchingly cold as the rest of him but there was something about it that made her want to run her fingers through it. He pulled her in tighter, closer, stronger. It was heartbreaking how much wanting seemed to drench every little one of his actions.Like he was breathing her in. For months now it had seemed like the very memory of warmth was getting further and further away, but here she was, hurtling into his life like a ball of fire. He felt the blood rush down—-for so long he had only been maintaining himself with the mere memory of touch but the weight of her in his arms, the force of her against his lips, her breath passing warm into his mouth, seemed to flick every switch in his body. He could feel his heart thumping hard, wondered briefly if she could feel it too with the way she was pressed against him.

His lips were cold, his mouth was cold, but the wetness of it—she liked it. Like a clean-running spring, almost. Still, she could feel the cold of him sinking into her. She wasn’t sure how long the fur blanket on her shoulders could keep the worst of it at bay, so she broke her lips from his, kissing the corner of his mouth, his jawline, down his neck where she fussed at the fasteners of his tunic until she managed to get it open to reveal his chest, sculpted and scarred like his face. She kissed him again trailing her fingertips down his bare skin from the dip in his collarbone down to his trousers. Her fingers brushed againstthe front of his pants and she broke her lips away from his chest to look at him, “Excited already are we?” she said with a sly grin, her fingers pressing against his bulge.

“I did tell you you’re painfully attractive,” said Genji.

“And here I thought you were just a charmer,” said Mercy, grinning as she lowered herself, leaving a kiss on his ribs on the way. Genji braced his hands against the table as Mercy went down to one knee and undid the laces of his breeches. She only had to pull the front part of his trousers down slightly for his cock to spring forth and her eyes widened. Like the rest of him, it was that same faintly glowing snow-in-moonlight white, with a few icy blue veins running through it. And it was… sizable. 

“ _Götter…”_ she ran her fingers lightly down the shaft,“You could’ve brought spring a long time ago if you only—“ she caught herself and her eyes flicked up to him and she cleared her throat, “Sorry. I mean it’s… it’s pretty.”

Genji snorted. “Thanks.” 

She mindlessly shifted her grip up and down his shaft for a bit and grinned at his shuddering breath and the way his fingers rolled their grip on the table he was leaning against—it had been too long for him, she could tell from the moment their lips had met.She looked up at him, meeting those blue star eyes as her hand slipped up and down the length of him. She kissed the base of the shaft and then opened her mouth, her tongue pressed against the base of his cock and his breath shortened, she smiled at the sound, closed her eyes, and moved to run her tongue from base to tip.

And then she stopped midway there.

Genji, his head rolled back in in a blissful haze, managed to bring his head up.

“Something wrong?” he said, looking down at her.

“Uh…” Mercy’s eyes flicked around the kitchen looking for some, any, source of heat.

“If you don’t like it you don’t have to keep—-“ Genji started and her eyes flicked up to him and horror filled his eyes. 

“Please tell me your tongue’s not stuck—“ he started

“Ith thuck.” 

“Oh gods—”

“Uhn panck,” said Mercy, trying to figure out what to do. 

“Don’t panic?!”said Genji as the room dropped several more degrees, the windows creaked and squeaked as frost crystals danced across them, “You’re stuck and you’re telling me not to—“

“GENFI!” Mercy attempted to articulate his name as best she could with her tongue frozen stuck to his cock. 

Genji’s eyes flicked to the wind rattling against the window and then down to Mercy. Something about the furious spark in those gray-blue eyes centered him. He exhaled, “Right,” he said breathing deep, “Focusing.” 

Mercy closed her eyes exhaled her breath in a fog, making soft “hahn” sounds as she did so. She seized his hand and stuck his fingers through her hair. Normally the distress of the curse would be killing his arousal but just the feeling of running his fingers through her hair, the sight of her down there, all gray-bliue eyes and straw-colored hair that kept tumbling from her braid,and that warm breath and pink tongue that tugged at the skin of his cock kept him painfully and wonderfully hard. Another warm breath left Mercy in a puff of fog and she managed to summon up enough saliva to finally tug her tongue loose from his shaft.

A sigh of relief escaped Genji and his hands traced down from her hair to her cheekbone.

“All right,” he said, his voice was thick with frustration and longing but also resignation, “So as you can see, the curse—”

She spat on his cock and closed her mouth over the tip, working the base with one hand while steadying herself with her other hand on his hip.

“Are you mad?!” Genji blurted out, “You just got unstuh—unst…” his words trailed off as she pressed her tongue against the base of his cock’s head and drew him in hard with her lips. The table he was leaning against scraped back slightly as he pressed his hand over his mouth to muffle a moan. She seemed completely undeterred by the sticking incident. In truth, if she kept her mouth wet enough and she kept _moving_ she found she wouldn’t get stuck.

She broke her lips away from his cock and looked up at him, keeping her hand moving up and down his shaft, “Do you want me to stop?” she said quietly.

“Please don’t stop,” his voice left him in a breath and she brought her mouth back down on him with a gleeful vengeance. All that time alone left him sensitive, she found, she could feel him twitching against her tongue. She looked up at him and saw that the glacial blue flush had returned to his face, his breath was heavy, his eyes shut and his brow furrowed with focus. She felt herself go slick and she felt a longing sacral ache. She loved the size and hardness of his cock, as she traced around its head with her tongue. _Still cold, though maybe if I get it warm enough I can get it in me,_ she thought, and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she briefly brought her mouth further down its length as if acting on that thought before looking back up to Genji’s face. There was a fierceness to his expression, and for a brief moment her mind trailed back to his portrait in the hall, that confident grin, that sharp look in his dark eyes. _The curse has humbled him,_ she thought as she bore down her tongue and the suction of her lips all the harder on him, _Made him more awkward and reticent._ He opened his eyes then and wove his fingers through her hair again as she closed her own eyes and let herself get lost in the motions of sucking and kissing and stroking. He set his jaw and drew a sharp breath in through his teeth and the sound brought her back to reality. His eyes flicked open and down to her.

“I’m—” he was going to say ‘I’m going to come’ but her eyes flicked up to him and he came hard before he could finish the sentence. His seed hit the back of her throat and she gagged and broke her mouth away from his cock to breathe, but the movement of her hands sent another spurt of silvery white onto the side of her jaw and down the front of her tunic. 

She coughed and snickered. “Thanks for the warning,” she said with a grin, wiping some of the cum off of her face with her thumb before looking up at his face and her eyes widening.

“I,” Genji huffed a little, running his hand through his hair, “I tried.” He glanced down at Mercy, who was staring slack-jawed up at him.

“What?” said Genji.

Mercy stood up and looked around the kitchen before grabbing a knife from its block on the table.

“Woah!” Genji reared back but she held the flat of the knife to him and he caught sight of his own reflection in the blade. The starry blue light was gone from one eye, and a streak of black coursed through his silvery white hair. His skin was still unnaturally pale, but the flush on his face was a bit more lavender rather than glacial blue.

“That’s… new…” he said as she set the knife down on the table. Mercy glanced to the window to see no snowflakes blowing about.

“Just a moment,” she said, shrugging off the fur blanket.

“Wait—“ Genji was fumbling to lace up his breeches again behind her as she walked out to the main hall and started pushing against one of the doors. “Here, let me—“

He helped her shove the massive doors open and a few snowflakes blew in, but both stepped out onto the stones of the castle’s entryway and looked out on a silent white landscape. Genji’s eyes trailed up to the sky, which was a deep blue that was only intensified in its tone by the snow on the ground. Daylight was falling on Genji and he seemed less of a ghost now. Mercy’s breath was still fogging in front of her, There was a light in his eyes, not that unnatural blue glow, but a spark of hope.

“I can’t remember the last time the sky was that clear,” he said softly. He brought his hand to his brow and squinted. “You can even see the villages!” 

“Still cold though, wouldn’t you say?” said Mercy, putting one hand on his shoulder.

“Well—yes, but it’s the warmest it’s been in gods know how—”

“But still _so_ cold.”

Genji glanced over at Mercy, her cheeks flushed, his seed still splattered across the top of her tunic. She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes, little golden flyaway hairs drifting about the sides of her face, and a patient, knowing smile.

“…We could probably get it warmer,” said Genji.

“Probably,” said Mercy with a grin.

—-

Genji poked at the fireplace in the master bedroom and frustratedly jammed his hands in front of it. 

_Warm up,_ he thought, _Warm up, damn you._ He looked at the purple-ish veins running up through his glassy white skin and his lips thinned. The light of the room was white and yellow of the winter daylight streaming through the window and the fire blazing.

“Are you sure about thi—” He turned around to see the valkyrie shedding her tunic, revealing a linen short stay beneath, “…this…” he finished the sentence, though at this point he couldn’t quite recall how he started it. It was the muscles of her back which stood out first, powerful like a swimmer’s, especially at the shoulders where her feathers ended. She had scars too, and moles. And freckles on her shoulders. She readjusted her wings a bit before turning to face him.

“You’re staring,” she smiled.

“You’re beautiful,” he said, before breaking his sight from her and looking back at the fire. He could feel her smile, even when his eyes weren’t on her. That sly, unflappable smile that seemed to pierce through all his rationalization and resignation to his fate.

In two steps she was in front of him, placing a hand on his jawline and guiding his sight up to her.

“Touch me,” she said. Her voice was soft. He reached out. His hand hesitated a quarter inch over her neck, she brought her hand over his and pressed it down against her skin with a sharp inhale from the cold.

“I don’t know how to make it—” Genji started but she put a finger to his lips and smiled.

“It’s fine,” she said, “Valkyrie, remember? I can handle the cold.” She brought her finger away from his lips, wove her fingers through his hair and kissed him, pressing herself against him. His tunic was still undone, so feeling her breasts, even bound up as they were in her linen short stay, press up against his own bare skin was electrifying. And the warmth of her skin was almost unbearable. Despite how hard he came into her mouth only a matter of minutes before, he could feel his cock stiffen all over again. He brushed her hair out of her face as she undid the fastener at the back of her stay, loosing her breasts. His jaw dropped dumbly at the sight of them. She snorted at the slack-jawed expression on his face.

“I—“ he caught himself, “Sorry I—Saying it’s been a while would be redundant at this point wouldn’t it?” he said.

“It would,” she said, taking his hands and placing them on her breasts. Both their breaths shuddered, his from the softness of her skin, and hers from both the deftness and coldness of his touch. He let out a hard exhale and buried his face between them, and a short gasping laugh escaped her at the suddenness of the action.

“Well now I’m just making a fool of myself, aren’t I?” he said, bringing his eyes up to hers.

“No it’s….” she bit her lip a little, “You know that portrait of you in the great hall?”

“The one that makes me look like an arse?” said Genji, cupping his hand under one breast and just enjoying the weight of it while fondling the other.

“I kind of like how it makes you look like an arse,” said Mercy, her breath hitching briefly as he tweaked a nipple, “But I also like you now. There’s the—” she drew a sharp breath as Genji lowered himself slightly and kissed and nibbled at her breasts, “Cocky—ah—arrogant prince in the portrait, and there’s you—all caution and longing and—whoop!”

Genji scooped his arms up under her at this point and carried her over to the bed, setting her down, still carefully eying the bandage on her wing before turning his attention back to her.

“Longing?” he said, kicking off his own sable-lined boots and getting up onto the bed, looming over her with a grin on his face.

“Oh _hopeless_ longing,” said Mercy, stroking the side of his face.

“Oh I wouldn’t say ‘hopeless,’” he said, kissing her then lowering himself once more to kiss and caress her breasts again, “But what man or woman wouldn’t long for you?” 

“Charmer,” she smirked.

“Prince,” he said with a smug shrug.

She smiled as she felt his tongue flick over her nipple while his other hand squeezed and tweaked at her other breast. Her nipples ached with cold and arousal and she bit her lip with a grin as she ruffled his hair and let him lose himself against her skin.

“Gods,” his words were muffled into her cleavage, “It’s true what the legends say then, that the gods shape Valkyries from clouds and sunlight…”

“I don’t know about clouds,” she said a little breathlessly, “I’m pretty sure my nipples could cut glass right now.”

Genji broke into a laugh as he brought himself up only to take his tunic off and throw it off to the side. Mercy’s eyes lit up at his broad shoulders and powerful arms and she grinned. “Well here I am trying to be romantic and charming and there you go giving me the mental image of you sliding your tits down a window with a horrible screeching sound,” he said, his hands going to the top of her trousers. She wasn’t sure if it was the roaring fire in the room or her own arousal, but the coldness of his touch was quickly becoming an afterthought. She angled her hips up, grinning as he pulled off her trousers and tossed them aside, stripping her down to her smallclothes and a pair of undyed long woolen stockings she had worn to further guard against the cold. His arousal was a deep-running ache now, he could even hear the laces of his trousers creaking against it whenever he shifted his hips, but he was also willing to savor the moment and pray his body might warm up more. He stroked one hand from her calf up the side of her leg, his middle finger tracing along the coarse knit stitching until he reached the soft skin of her leg. 

“The stockings are staying,” said Mercy, “They’re all what’s keeping my feet from going numb.”

“I have no problem with that,” said Genji with a grin. His eyes flicked to the linen of her smallclothes, already clinging to her petal-like labia with her own wetness. He pressed his lips to the linen between her legs and just breathed her in for a few seconds, all musky-sweetness and warmth. “These, however…are going,” he said, hooking his thumbs beneath the fabric and pulling the smallclothes off of her. He tossed the smallclothes aside and was kissing and tonguing her clit before they even completed their arc across the room. Mercy made a sound, a song-like sigh which made his cock strain all the harder against the laces of his trousers and made him plunge his lips and tongue against her like the kiss of a man dying of thirst to the surface of a spring.

“Genji—“ her fingers raked through his increasingly blackening hair as he brought her legs up onto his shoulders and dug in deeper, kissed and licked and sucked harder, lost in her taste and scent, “Genji _please—_ ”

Her voice stoked the pain of his own erection and he brought his lips away from her. “I don’t know how cold—“ he started.

“I don’t care,” she said, her voice tender but with an edge of impatience.

“But if we stick again—” Genji started.

“Oh for—“ Mercy rolled her eyes and put her hands on his shoulders, she shoved hard with only one arm, the suddenness of the motion catching him off guard and turning him on his side before pushing him onto his back as she straddled him, shimmying his trousers off of him with no small amount of focus and enthusiasm.

“Something tells me you’d be good in a fight,” he said as she tossed her braid over her shoulder with a flick of her hand and worked on unlacing his breeches. She gave him a look with an arching eyebrow and he realized the obviousness of his own statement. “…Valkyrie, right.” His cock sprang free from the confines of his breeches and in spite of having already seen it, her eyes widened at its size. She looked to him, his hair now an awkward patchwork of black and silvery white with his eyelashes thick and dark. She took ahold of his cock and slid it against her already-slick folds, rocking her hips back and forth and covering his shaft with her own wetness and biting her lip as the head of his cock grazed against her clit. Finally when the pain of his own hardness seemed all but unbearable, she widened her legs slightly and slid his cock into her.

“Ah…” his breath shuddered hard as she started moving, up and down his shaft, throwing in that same maddening rocking motion with her hips. Her breasts bobbed gently with her movement, and he brought up his hands, cupping one over one of her breasts, stroking his thumb over her nipple. The other hand he kept at her hip, helping guide the motion of her hips as he watched her bounce and rock and tilt her head back. For a few brief seconds he was so lost in the pleasure of the moment, in the relief at her fitting so perfectly over him, that the curse didn’t even occur to him, but then as she moved, a thrilled, terrified thought occurred to him. _It’s warm,_ he thought, _I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt warmth like this._ His eyes trailed up to her, her eyes were closed, her lips parted and her breath short and half-tinged with with those song-like sighs. Her braid was bouncing against her other breast, and impulsively he grabbed ahold of it and pulled her down into a kiss as he thrusted hard into her. She moaned into his mouth and her arms tangled around him as _he_ shifted his weight this time so that she was on her back.He suddenly caught himself, “Your wing—” he started.

“It’s fine—” her grip on him tightened and she kissed him hard, “It’s fine—Please—Don’t stop—Don’t stop…”

He let the movement of his own hips take over then, falling into her again and again. Their lips met in eager clumsy kisses. She strained her hips upward as he kept thrusting into her, angling him just so he could hit her at all the right spots, and then all at once she was heat closing in him, squeezing down hard on his cock. A moan fell out of her and he could feel the heat and tightness in her rising, the muscles in her her hips and legs twitching until suddenly her hips spasmed and she threw her head back with a cry. Her hips were bucking with every thrust but he kept going, feeling her spasming orgasm clamping down on his cock and nearly being caught up in the haze of it all until he once again caught himself and pulled out of her, his cum spilling onto her stomach as he put most of his weight on one arm and caught his breath. She was panting as well as he slumped off of her.

“Made a bit of a mess, haven’t you—Oh,” she was looking at the silvery white splashed across her stomach when he pulled her into a tight embrace there on the bed. There wasn’t the jolt of cold as his arms wrapped around her. His skin was slightly cool, but she could feel a warmth emanating from his chest. Her eyes flicked up to his face, no longer snow-in-moonlight but flushed, scarred, so human and so beautiful.

She closed her eyes and nestled up so her head was just under his chin. They stayed there, holding each other with the only sound being the fire crackling. If she was being honest she lost track of how long they laid there all wrapped up in each other until he shifted against her slightly and both became aware of the stickiness now between them.

“We should—” Mercy started.

“Right—” Genji pulled away from her and hurried off to the washroom.

“Excellent catch there, though,” said Mercy, as Genji emerged from the washroom and tossed her a cloth to wipe herself off with. 

“Yes, well…I don’t really know the full ramifications of the curse yet,” Genji said with a shrug, “Don’t want to… accidentally create an ice demon or something.”

“An _ice demon?!_ ” Mercy repeated with a laugh in her voice.

“I mean I’m not ruling it out,” said Genji with a shrug. Mercy snickered and Genji lifted his head with some awe in his expression.

“What is it?” said Mercy.

“Oh it’s—,” Genji ran a hand through his now-black hair a bit shyly, “I just… heard some birdsong. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever hear it again.”

Mercy smiled from the bed before flopping forward and cradling her chin in her hands coyly at him, kicking her feet back and forth behind her.

“What are you smiling about?” Genji said, tossing the cloth he had used to wipe himself down off into a hamper.

“Well…. I mean it _could_ stand to be warmer, couldn’t it?” said Mercy.

Genji gave a glance outside the window to the fields of near-blinding sunlit snow. “Yes… I suppose it could stand to be warmer.”

“I mean, months and months of icy hell isn’t going to reverse itself,” said Mercy with a shrug.

“No,” said Genji, stepping towards the bed with a sly grin, “It isn’t, is it?”

The fire crackled and Mercy laughed as Genji all but tackled her against the sheets.


End file.
